You can't take the 'cast from me

A whole lot of podcasting going on this past week, On Hellbent for Letterbox, Pax and I dove back into the world of spaghetti westerns with Lee Van Cleef in the bonkers Sabata. We also discussed Gregory Peck in The Bravados, Matt Wagner and Francesco Francavilla's Zorro, and Robert Conrad and Ross Martin in The Wild Wild West.





Then over on Dragonfly Ripple, we talked sci-fi and politics. Carlin and I start with a discussion of how we introduce our kids to politics and then get into some sci-fi TV with political elements with the kids. We start with the two V mini-series from the 1980s and then move on to Firefly. Plus, on Jetpack Tiger, Carlin and Dash talk about their experience with Star Wars Celebration.





And finally, there are a couple of recent Starmageddon episodes I have't told you about yet. In the first one, Dan talks about finally finishing Clone Wars, Ron and Dan discuss their addiction to the Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes mobile game, and we share our thoughts on the most recent Star Trek: Discovery casting: Jason Issacs as the captain and Rainn Wilson as our favorite Star Trek rogue, Harry Mudd.

Then in the latest episode, we're joined by David Spell to discuss all of the exciting news from Star Wars Celebration, including the Last Jedi trailer, the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront II video game, and the girl-friendly Forces of Destiny.

Starmageddon: For the Love of Spock, Rogue One, and Carrie Fisher

Need to catch up some more on reporting recent podcast activity. And by "recent" I mean the last three months. It was a sporadic autumn for Starmageddon, but we did have some good discussions that you should totally listen to.

In Episode 38, we discussed the final Rogue One trailer, then Episode 39 was mostly about Adam Nimoy's documentary, For the Love of Spock. Episode 40 was all about Dan and my initial reactions to Rogue One, and then we got all silly in Episode 41, where we talked about the most recent Axanar news and shared our memories of Carrie Fisher.

Starmageddon: Star Trek Continues and Fan Film Guidelines revisited

On the latest episode of Starmageddon, Dan, Ron, and I discuss the two latest Star Trek Continues episodes and come clean about our expectations for Rogue One. Then, related to Star Trek Continues, I talk to my pal and fellow Nerd Lunch Fourth Chairperson, Evan Hanson about the Star Trek fan-film guidelines. That's the second time the guidelines have been discussed on the show, but the first time with an actual lawyer and Evan has a great take on it.

Starmageddon: Kenny Baker, Discovery, and the Star Wars Fan Film Awards

On the most recent episode of Starmageddon, we say goodbye to Kenny Baker, talk about the latest Rogue One trailer, groove on “Sabotage” some more, take a look at the fan-made Kenobi trailer, discuss the Star Wars Fan Film Award winners, and somehow still find time to go over the latest info about Star Trek: Discovery. We're miracle workers.

Thy kind hath podcasted too far already

Last month, Nerd Lunch celebrated Star Trek's 50th anniversary with four episodes about the show. And they were nice enough to let me join one of them for a discussion of everyone's favorite, godlike child, Q from Next Generation. (And Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but we all agreed that he works best with the TNG crew.) We dissect what his role was on the show and which episodes made the best use of him.





Then over at Starmageddon, we did back-to-back episodes with our new pal Tristan, first talking about the introduction of Star Trek's first gay character and whether or not Sulu was the best choice for that milestone. Then a couple of days later, we also released our review of Star Trek Beyond. Lots of spoilers in the second one, so stay away until you've seen the film.

It is a period of podcast war

In the most recent episode of Starmageddon, after a quick promo for one of my other podcasts (synergy!), Dan and Ron and I say goodbye to Anton Yelchin before diving into the new Star Trek fan film guidelines, the Kelvin Timeline, and some new info about the upcoming Star Trek TV series. On the Star Wars side, we talk about some recent revelations about Rogue One, including ties to Clone Wars, those darn reshoots, and whether or not it needs to open with a title crawl.

Check it out on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever fine podcasts are sold.

A podcast 65 million years in the making

In the second episode of Mystery Movie Night's sadly Erikless summer, we're joined by special guest Siskoid of Siskoid's Blog of Geekery. Mark leads the discussion of brachiosaurs, brownies, and broken fingers. Have a listen as we go over the films, then see if you can guess the secret connection between all three.





Then beam over to Starmageddon where Dan gives his report on the Star Trek Beyond event and talks about his impressions of not just the shindig, but also the exclusive footage that he and the other attending fans got to see. After enjoying IGN's Karl Urban interview, we jump to Star Wars for some speculation about the Rogue One reshoots, before finally making our wish lists of some of the Trek and Wars merchandise coming just in time for Comic-Con International. Listen at the Starmageddon page or on your favorite podcast platform.

Happy Anniversary, Starmageddon!

If I'd been a better blogger last week, I would have let you know that a new episode of Starmageddon came out. It's our One Year Anniversary Special, which means that we do what we always do: talk about Star Wars and Star Trek news. We discuss Alden Ehrenreich as the newer, younger Han Solo and go over the recent Rogue One info that leaked out. Minor spoilers in that part of the conversation, I guess, though there's not much new info other than some names of characters and a couple of descriptions. I also recapped the Star Trek/Wars panel I hosted at MSP ComicCon and we briefly touch on the teaser trailer for the Star Trek TV series.

Come see me at MSP Comicon!

I'm super late with this post, but if you live not too far away from Minneapolis/Saint Paul, I hope you've already made plans to come to MSP Comicon this weekend. And while you're there, I hope you'll look me up! I'll have a table with Kill All Monsters comics, but also some nifty Starmageddon "May the Force Live Long and Prosper With You" stickers.

And speaking of Starmageddon, this morning at 10:30 I'm hosting a panel called Star Trek and Star Wars: Why Can't We Be Friends?. We've got a great group of comics creators who are also Star Trek and/or Star Wars fans (a couple of whom have worked on honest-to-Spock official Star Trek comics). We'll be celebrating Star Trek's 50th anniversary by sharing our favorite memories from the show and hopes for the future of the series. And we'll be talking plenty of Star Wars, too, debriefing over The Force Awakens and looking forward to Rogue One. And then we'll wrap up with a discussion of the differences and similarities between both series.

It'll be audience participatory, too. We want to hear from anyone who wants to share!

See you at the show!

See It. Hear It. Feel It. Podcast It.

Hellbent for Letterbox: High Noon 



This was a busy week of podcasting. On Monday, a new episode of Hellbent for Letterbox came out in which Pax and I talk about the Gary Cooper classic, High Noon. But though it may be a classic, we had some big issues with it.



Then we followed that up later in the week with a supplemental episode (we call 'em "Hitching Posts") about a couple of movies that were inspired by High Noon. Sean Connery's Outland is a scifi film with a Western feel that pays homage to High Noon, and then there's the TV movie sequel, High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane starring Lee Majors, Pernell Roberts, and David Carradine. Guess which one we liked more.



Mystery Movie Night: Purple Rain, Under the Cherry Moon, and Graffiti Bridge



The death of Prince put the Mystery Movie Night crew in the mood to watch his movies and talk about them, so we did. Sadly, Erik wasn't able to join us for this one, but he was there in spirit and we had a great discussion about our respect for Prince and the merits and flaws of his films.



Starmageddon, Episode 30 



And finally, the latest episode of Starmageddon rolled out in which we talk about the Rogue One trailer, the trailer for Adam Nimoy's For the Love of Spock documentary, and rumors about the setting and format of the new Star Trek TV series. Are we excited? Uneasy? Only one way to find out.

Big they watched! Big they talked! Big their podcast!

A new episode of Hellbent for Letterbox dropped this week, in which Pax and I discuss the 1958 epic, The Big Country, starring Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Jean Simmons, Chuck Connors, and Sam the Snowman. Also: Pax talks about the TV shows Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, and The Wild Wild West, while Michael mentions Tumbleweeds (1925) and Jesse James (1939). Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck may come up as well.



Oh, and hey! Hellbent for Letterbox has a brand-spankin'-new website, too! I'm gonna keep the Tumblr going as a place to celebrate Westerns with all kinds of random stuff, but now we also have a manageable repository to archive all the episodes.



Meanwhile, over at Starmageddon, we're a little behind the Star Wars news cycle, but still plenty enthusiastic about the head-canon of Star Wars Rebels' Dave Filoni. And Ron describes his recent trip to Disneyland and experiencing Season of the Force.

We recorded a new episode this week where we talk about the Rogue One trailer and lots of Star Trek stuff, so that should drop soon. too. I'll let you know.

You Will Believe a Man Can Podcast

I'm spending more time podcasting lately, so it's a shame that I'm so lousy when it comes to telling people about it. Here's some stuff I've been up to the last few weeks. I've included links in the descriptions, but everything's also available on iTunes.

On the most recent Starmageddon episode we talked about Star Wars 8 director Rian Johnson, whom I'm a big fan of thanks to Looper and The Brothers Bloom and Dan likes for his episodes of Breaking Bad. We also geeked out about Bryan Fuller's coming on board the new Star Trek TV series and how that's going to be a tough show to dismiss by people upset about CBS All Access. Finally, we also had a great discussion about the idea of canon, especially as the term is used in the Star Wars universe. Is it a useful concept or just a marketing tool?



Early this month, the Mystery Movie Night gang got together again for our second episode. Sadly, my brother Mark couldn't join us for this one, but Erik Johnson led the rest of us in a discussion about classic '50s scifi, '90s teen comedy, and a Disney "masterpiece." Is Forbidden Planet as good as it is influential? Is 10 Things I Hate About You a worthy heir to the John Hughes legacy? Does The Lion King live up to its reputation as a Disney classic? And what do all of these movies have in common? Plus: Our favorite Disney animated features!



We're adding a new feature to Dragonfly Ripple called "Riplets," basically mini-episodes that fall outside the format of the regular show. Our first one features Carlin and Annaliese checking out ALT*Con Florida 2016, their local sci-fi and gaming convention. It's a companion piece to Carlin's Nerd Lunch "Extra Helping" which has him and Annaliese live at the show, conducting interviews. The Riplet is their follow-up chat after the show, focused on Annaliese's thoughts about the experience.



Early this week, Pax and I dropped another episode of our Western podcast, Hell Bent for Letterbox. In this one, we talk about Kurt Russell's other Western from last year, Bone Tomahawk. But not before we mention other Western things we've been up to like The Covered Wagon (1923), Hang ‘Em High (1968), and the comics Django/Zorro and Manifest Destiny.



And then finally (for now), Carlin and I got to appear as guests on Pax's other podcast (with co-hosts Jaime Hood and Shawn Robare), Cult Film Club. Jaime wasn't able to be on this one, but Carlin and I filled in as best we could, helping Shawn and Pax mark the opening of Batman v Superman with a discussion of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. It's a great conversation about a movie that - messed up as it is in many places - is still one of my favorite Superman films.

A long time ago in a podcast far away...

Now that we're done with James Bond for a little bit (I'll do one more post before SPECTRE comes out, but not until after Halloween), I need to catch up on some other business. Like reminding you that I'm on a bunch of podcasts.

There's the Star Trek/Star Wars podcast called Starmageddon that Dan Taylor and I host. We've been doing it for about four months now and it's a lot of fun. We've had some great guests on; most recently writer David A Goodman who wrote the Star Trek-focused "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" episode for Futurama, was a writer for Enterprise, and has recently written The Autobiography of James T Kirk. You should totally make Starmageddon part of your weekly podcast listening.

Then, Carlin Trammel and I (and our respective kids) recently dropped a new episode of Dragonfly Ripple: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Nerd. We caught up a little on our kids' interests in Star Trek and Doctor Who, talked a little about old school arcade games, and then spent the bulk of our time discussing Spider-Man in general, but really digging into the Sam Raimi trilogy.



And speaking of digging into movies, I've also been on recent episodes of Nerd Lunch with Kay from Hyperspace Theories, drilling down on the Star Wars prequels. I've got a new theory about the Jedi Council that I'm working through as I watch these this time, so that comes up a lot, but also there's a ton of other fun discussion about what we like and don't about those movies.

Podcast Catch-Up, Pt 3: Starmageddon

I don't think I've actually mentioned this on the blog, but I'm the co-host of a weekly Star Wars/Star Trek podcast called Starmageddon. It's the brainchild of writer Dan Taylor (Hero Happy Hour) who also used to edit Star Trek comics for IDW before returning to writing full time. Dan's a huge nerd for both series and knew that I am too, so we decided to start talking about them regular-like.

I won't be giving updates on when new episodes come out, because... every week. But we've got three episodes up so far and the next one's being edited. You can find them all on the website or through your usual way of listening to podcasts.

After an episode 00 where Dan and I just talked about our history with the shows, we've settled into a format where we use recent news to springboard into other discussions. Should we be getting our hopes up about Star Trek Beyond? Would it be cool to see a live action Ahsoka appear in The Force Awakens? What should a new Star Trek TV series be like? What does "canon" even mean in the Star Wars universe? I'm having a blast hashing this stuff out.

Starting with our next episode, we're also adding guests to the format. Some will be other passionate fans and some will be actual Trek and Wars newsmakers. And sometimes we'll have both in the same episode. I hope you'll give it a try.